How to install KVM on CentOS 8 Headless Server

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To install KVM on a headless CentOS 8 server, you will need to perform the following steps:

  1. Ensure that your server’s CPU supports virtualization by running the following command:
grep -E 'vmx|svm' /proc/cpuinfo

This command should return output if virtualization is supported.

  1. Install the KVM and QEMU packages by running the following command:
sudo dnf install qemu-kvm qemu-img virt-manager libvirt libvirt-python libvirt-client virt-install virt-viewer

This command will install the packages required for KVM, including QEMU (the emulator), virt-manager (the graphical interface), and libvirt (the library used to interact with the virtualization hypervisor).

  1. Enable and start the libvirtd service by running the following command:
sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd
  1. Add your user account to the libvirt group so that you can manage virtual machines without using the root account:
sudo usermod -a -G libvirt $(whoami)
  1. Verify that KVM is working by running the following command:
virsh list --all

This command should return an empty list, as there should be no running or defined virtual machines yet.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you should be able to use the virt-manager command to create, manage, and run virtual machines on your headless CentOS 8 server using KVM.

Please note, this guide is just the basic setup, and there are other things to consider like storage, networking, and security. Consider consulting the official documentation for more detailed information.

(Ultram)

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